Denver audit of homelessness initiative puts focus on cost dispute, with Mayor Mike Johnston pushing back

Elliott Wenzler, The Denver Post on Mar 19, 2026

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Denver Auditor Tim O’Brien released a critical report on Mayor Mike Johnston’s homelessness program Thursday, calling his key initiative “poorly planned” and claiming it had cost millions of dollars more than the office reported.

“They needed to have, really, a better plan in place before they started executing,” O’Brien said in an interview with The Denver Post.

In a response to the audit, Johnston’s office sent out its own news release to take issue with several of its findings.

“The city’s review of this report finds it misstates key facts and is in some instances willfully misleading,” Johnston’s office wrote.

The two sides were disagreeing publicly — and not for the first time — over an audit report that analyzed the All in Mile High homelessness program between July 2023, when Johnston took office, and June 2025. Johnston had promised to end street homelessness while running for office, and he launched the initiative in the second half of 2023 by opening a network of temporary shelters in former hotels and new micro-communities that used tiny homes and other structures.

One of the key disagreements Thursday was over whether the mayor’s office underreported the cost of the program to the City Council by about $20 million. According to the auditor’s office, the mayor’s office told the council late last year that the initative’s total cost in its first two years was about $158 million.

Patrick Schafer, a senior audit manager, said that the disagreements about what should be included in the program’s cost indicated that there was the potential for problems like the misuse of funds, inefficiencies and incomplete planning.

“I think that shows there’s a systematic problem with how you guys track the expenditure amount,” he said. “I think there is a problem.”

Such assertions drew pushback from the mayor’s administration. The report, the committee meeting and Johnston’s response also amounted to a parade of comments from both sides as they made and rebuffed criticisms about how the other side had behaved during the audit process.

According to the auditor’s office, the mayor’s office failed to provide documents showing overall spending and refused to give access to expense-tracking spreadsheets.

“The Mayor’s Office also said the $20.1 million in underreporting was unintentional,” according to a news release from the auditor’s office.

Johnston’s office said officials did provide those documents and added about the underreporting characterization: “The Auditor’s Office said this, not the Mayor’s Office. We did not say that, as we do not believe we underreported any figures.”

Tensions between O’Brien’s and Johnston’s offices intensified last year during the budget process, as they fought publicly over the mayor’s attempt to cut O’Brien’s budget during a citywide budget crisis. At the time, O’Brien said Johnston was interfering with his work as a separately elected official.

The mayor’s office agreed with seven of the 12 recommendations made in the All In Mile High audit report. “I think we could have had more progress as a result of this audit,” he said.

Cole Chandler, a senior adviser to Johnston on homelessness, responded plainly: “Our relationship just doesn’t lend itself to that kind of conversation. That’s not the way those meetings are set up, and not the outcome they’re seeking. So I would encourage you to go back and look at the way you’re structuring that and structuring that partnership moving forward.”

The auditor’s office has announced plans to investigate several other city initiatives this year, including the 16th Street mall reconstruction, Vision Zero efforts to reduce pedestrian deaths and the city budget process.

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